LXIX. Capitol; and if the numbers and valour of the CHAP. Germans prevailed in the bloody conflict, he could not fafely encamp in the prefence of a city of which he styled himself the fovereign. About twelve years afterwards, he befieged Rome, to feat an antipope in the chair of St. Peter; and twelve Pifan gallies were introduced into the Tyber: but the fenate and people were faved by the arts of negociation and the progrefs of disease; nor did Frederic or his fucceffors reiterate the hoftile attempt. Their laborious reigns were exercised by the popes, the crufades, and the independence of Lombardy and Germany; they courted the alliance of the Romans; and Frederic the fecond offered in the Capitol the great ftandard, the Caroccio of Milan 6. After the extinction of the house of Swabia, they were banished beyond the Alps; and their last coronations betrayed the impotence and poverty of the Teutonic Cæfars 6. Under 60 From the Chronicles of Ricobaldo and Francis Pipin, Muratori (differt. xxvi. tom. ii. p. 492.) has transcribed this curious fact with the doggrel verfes that accompanied the gift. Ave decus orbis ave! victus tibi deftinor, ave! Ergo triumphorum urbs potes memor effe priorum Ne fi dee tacere (I now use the Italian Differtations, tom. i. 61 The decline of the Imperial arms and authority in Italy, is related with impartial learning in the Annals of Muratori (tom. x, U 4 xi, CHAP. Wars of the Ro mans against the neighbouring cities. Under the reign of Adrian, when the empire extended from the Euphrates to the oceán, from mount Atlas to the Grampian hills, a fanciful hiftorian 62 amufed the Romans with the picture of their infant wars. "There was a time," fays Florus," when Tibur and Prænefte, our summer "retreats, were the objects of hoftile vows in the Capitol, when we dreaded the fhades of the "Arician groves, when we could triumph without a blush over the nameless villages of the Sabines "and Latins, and even Corioli could afford a "title not unworthy of a victorious general." The pride of his contemporaries was gratified by the contraft of the paft and the prefent: they would have been humbled by the profpect of futurity; by the prediction, that after a thoufand years, Rome, defpoiled of empire and contracted to her primæval limits, would renew the fame hoftilities, on the fame ground which was then decorated with her villas and gardens. The adjacent territory on either fide of the Tyber was always claimed, and fometimes poffeffed, as the patrimony of St. Peter; but the barons affumed a lawless independence, and the cities too faithfully copied the revolt and difcord of the metropolis. In the twelfth and thirteenth cen xi, xii.); and the reader may compare his narrative with the Hiftoire des Allemands (tom. iii, iv.), by Schmidt, who has deferved the efteem of his countrymen. 62 Tibur nunc fuburbanum, et æftivæ Prænefte delicia, nuncupatis in Capitolio votis petebantur. The whole paffage of Florus (l. i. c. 11.) may be read with pleasure, and has deferved the praise of a man of genius. (Œuvres de Montefquieu, tom. iii. p. 634, 635. quarto edition.) turies, LXIX. turies, the Romans inceffantly laboured to reduce CHAP. or deftroy the contumacious vaffals of the church and fenate; and if their headstrong and selfish ambition was moderated by the pope, he often encouraged their zeal by the alliance of his fpiritual arms. Their warfare was that of the first confuls and dictators, who were taken from the plow. They affembled in arms at the foot of the Capitol; fallied from the gates, plundered or burnt the harvefts of their neighbours, engaged in tumultuary conflict, and returned home after an expedition of fifteen or twenty days. Their fieges were tedious and unfkilful: in the use of victory, they indulged the meaner paffions of jealousy and revenge; and instead of adopting the valour, they trampled on the misfortunes, of their adverfaries. The captives, in their fhirts, with a rope round their necks, folicited their pardon: the fortifications and even the buildings of the rival cities were demolished, and the inhabitants were scattered in the adjacent villages. It was thus that the feats of the cardinal bishops, Porto, Oftia, Albanum, Tufculum, Prænefte, and Tibur or Tivoli, were fucceffively overthrown by the ferocious hoftility of the Romans 63. Of thefe **, 64 65 Ne a feritate Romanorum, ficut fuerant Hoftienfes, Portuenfes, Tufculanenfes, Albananfes, Labicenfes, et nuper Tiburtini deftruerentur (Matthew Paris, p. 757.). These events are marked in the Annals and Index (the xviiith volume) of Muratori. 64 For the state or ruin of thefe fuburban cities, the banks of the Tyber, &c. fee the lively picture of the P. Labat (voyage en Espagne et en Italie), who had long refided in the neighbourhood of Rome; and the more accurate defcription of which P. Efchinard (Roma, 1750, in octavo) has added to the topographical map of Cingolani. Porto LIXX. CHAP. Porto and Oftia, the two keys of the Tyber, are ftill vacant and defolate: the marfhy and unwholesome banks are peopled with herds of buffalos, and the river is loft to every purpose of navigation and trade. The hills which afford a fhady retirement from the autumnal heats, have again fmiled with the bleffings of peace: Frefcati has arisen near the ruins of Tufculum: Tibur or Tivoli has resumed the honours of a city "s, and the meaner towns of Albano and Palestrina are decorated with the villas of the cardinals and princes of Rome. In the work of deftruction, Romans was often checked Battle of TufcuJum. A. D. 1167. 65 66 the ambition of the 65 Labat (tom. iii. p. 233.) mentions a recent degree of the Roman government, which has feverely mortified the pride and poverty of Tivoli: in civitate Tiburtinâ non vivitur civiliter. 66 I depart from my ufual method, of quoting only by the date the Annals of Muratori, in confideration of the critical balance in which he has weighed nine contemporary writers who mention the battle of Tufculum (tom. x. p. 42—44.). 67 Matthew Paris, p. 345. This bishop of Winchester was Peter du Rupibus, who occupied the fee thirty-two years (A. D. 12061238), and is defcribed, by the English hiftorian, as a foldier and a ftatesman (p. 178. 399.), ward LXIX. A. D. 1234. ward they marched against Viterbo in the eccle- CHAP. fiaftical state with the whole force of the city; by a rare coalition, the Teutonic eagle was blended, Battle of in the adverse banners, with the keys of St. Peter; and the pope's auxiliaries were commanded by a count of Tholouse and a bishop of Winchester. The Romans were discomfited with fhame and flaughter; but the English prelate muft have indulged the vanity of a pilgrim, if he multiplied their numbers to one hundred, and their lofs in the field to thirty, thousand men. Had the policy of the fenate and the difcipline of the legions been restored with the Capitol, the divided condition of Italy would have offered the fairest opportunity of a fecond conqueft. But in arms, the modern Romans were not above, and in arts, they were far below, the common level of the neighbouring republics. Nor was their warlike fpirit of any long continuance; after fome irregular fallies, they fubfided in the national apathy, in the neglect of military institutions, and in the disgraceful and dangerous ufe of foreign mercenaries. Ambition is a weed of quick and early vegetation in the vineyard of Chrift. Under the first Christian princes, the chair of St. Peter was difputed by the votes, the venality, the violence of a popular election: the fanctuaries of Rome were polluted with blood; and from the third to the twelfth century, the church was distracted by the mischief of frequent fchifms. As long as the final appeal was determined by the civil magiftrate, thefe mifchiefs were tranfient and local: the merits were tried by equity or favour; nor could the unfucceff ful The elec tion of the popes. |